Abstract
Pakistan’s foreign policy is a story of constrains and compulsions rather than the leeway to exercise fair options. Its geographic location dictated, most of the choices it made, which also resulted in Pakistan getting entangled in super power rivalry. The last five plus years, Pakistan has faced the most serious challenges ever. This has resulted in several paradigm shifts and new trends that have emerged in the polity of Pakistan. These challenges can be turned into opportunities, if the new developments are consolidated. They may have a favorable impact on Pakistan itself and on its regional relations. The most prominent of these are the democratic transition in Pakistan, the changing Pakistan- US relationships, the situation in Afghanistan and imperatives of economic globalization. The paper takes into account and discusses their impact on Pak-India relations: Pakistan and India are on the dialogue table for the sixth time. This paper is an attempt to analyze how these paradigm shifts and new trends emerging in Pakistan, may actually result in sustainable better relations between the two protagonists of the region.

xv Air Marshal Asghar Khan, in 1996, had written a letter to then Chief Justice Nasim Hasan Shah against former army
chief, General Mirza Aslam Baig, former ISI chief Lieutenant General Asad Durrani and Younis Habib of Habib and
Mehran Banks, relating to the disbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes. On the basis of
Asghar Khan’s petition, Lieutenant General (Retd.) Asad Durrani took the stand in the Supreme Court and provided an
affidavit that the army had indeed distributed Pak Rs. 140 million to anti-PPP political candidates only a few months
before the October 1990 general election. See also Pakistan Observer http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=141736
xvi“Hearing of Asghar Khan case adjourned till 8 March”, Dawn 29 February 2012, http://www.dawn.com/2012/02/29/hearing-of-asghar-khan-case-adjourns-till-march-8.html (Last accessed on 29 February 2012)

xix “Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan 2003-2013,” Time, April 7, 2013, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/database/casualties.htm

xx Daily Times

xxi Huma Baqai, “Secularism: An Option for Pakistan”, International Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol.2,
No.3, Jan 2011, http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol._2_No._3_%5BSpecial_Issue_-_January_2011%5D/22.pdf

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